Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

Brooks City-Base

01/27/2012

A Pentagon call to shutter more bases Thursday drew concern and outright opposition, but leaders in San Antonio and elsewhere in Texas say the state likely would win big if a new closure round is ordered.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that he wants to start a new base-closure process “as soon as possible” as the Pentagon moves to cut its budget by $487 billion over 10 years.

Mayor Julián Castro and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff credited the 2005 Defense Base Closure and Realignment round with pumping $3.3 billion into the economy, positioning the city to support new missions.

But Castro, Wolff and Richard Perez, president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, said they'll have to create a group to prepare for a new BRAC and learn far more about the Pentagon's plans.

“The military investment made over the last couple of years has been essential to San Antonio's economic success and will continue to be, and so it's important for us to coalesce and to fight for the military investment that's already been made and can be made in the future,” Castro said.

Few were surprised as word of a new round broke.

Bill Parry, executive director of the Killeen-based Heart of Texas Defense Alliance, said then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates talked over the past two years of holding down costs. In an August 2010 briefing, Gates said the services were told to consider consolidating or closing “excess” bases.

“This is obviously a politically fraught topic,” Gates said at the time.

BRAC has been dreaded in San Antonio, which lost Kelly AFB and Brooks City-Base in separate rounds since 1995. Kelly, where 10,000 people once worked, often is credited for creating a Hispanic middle class in San Antonio. Brooks was a research hub with ties to the space program.